McNair hocks jewels to keep gem of defensive end

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I’ve never seen anyone so excited to spend $100 million as Texans owner Bob McNair was Tuesday.

It was McNair’s fault the Texans got a late start on their news conference to announce defensive end J.J. Watt’s six-year, $100-million contract extension that makes him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.

McNair had to make a quick stop on the way to NRG Stadium, where Watt signed his record deal that guarantees him $51.876 million and secures his services through the 2021 season when he’ll be a 32-year-old, 11-year veteran.

“I had to go down to the pawn shop and hock my wife’s (Janice) jewels to come up with enough money to take care of this young man,” McNair said, smiling at Watt and his audience.

General manager Rick Smith and vice president Chris Olsen negotiated the ground-breaking deal with agent Tom Condon, who also was in attendance.

“We’ve been involved in a lot of contract negotiations, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a deal where I agreed as much with the agent as I did in this deal with Tom about the type of player J.J. is,” Smith said. “The commitment to excellence, the character, the work ethic (and) the ability are things that are just on the field.

“He’s a tremendous asset to our organization, a wonderful ambassador off the field as well. It’s really good for us that we were able to get this extension done.”

Monster contracts like this one begin at the top. Without McNair’s willingness to open the vault for his best players, extensions like this wouldn’t be possible.

“I guess I’ll take this opportunity to say how blessed we are to have an owner like Bob McNair, who gives us the resources we need to continue to build this team,” Smith said.

‘It was our pleasure’

Smith and Olsen negotiated with Condon for weeks, but they didn’t reach an agreement in principle until almost midnight Monday. It was early Tuesday before they worked out the language. Watt didn’t sign until right before the news conference.

“With respect to this particular deal, it was our pleasure,” Smith said. “It was something that if we could get it structured in a way that didn’t compromise our ability to continue to build this team, then it was something we were going to do.”

Watt got a $10 million signing bonus. He gets a $10 million roster bonus in 2015 that can be converted into signing bonus for salary cap purposes.

“Part of the negotiation is to ensure that we structure the deal in such a way that we protect ourselves as best we can with respect to (the cap),” Smith said. “Chris does a fantastic job of structuring our contracts and managing our salary cap, especially as we move forward where this deal won’t impede us from continuing to build this team.”

The Texans did right by Watt, who’s the best defensive player in the NFL and the most popular player on the team. Watt and receiver Andre Johnson, the greatest player in team history, are the only Texans to get extensions with more than one year remaining on their contracts.

Watt’s extension sends a message that if you’re a great player and a credit to the organization on and off the field you can be rewarded before your contract expires.

Smith, who has a policy of no negotiations during regular season because he believes they’re a distraction, has done extensions with his best players with one year remaining: Brian Cushing, Arian Foster, Duane Brown and Matt Schaub, for instance.

I think he thanked everyone but his boss at the pizza joint in Wisconsin who told him he wasn’t big enough or good enough to play football.

Actually, he did say, “Hi to that guy” for providing some extra motivation to help him achieve what he received Tuesday – the kind of contract that puts him in a financial stratosphere with the highest-paid quarterbacks.

Watt still makes the $8.8 million he was due this year and in 2015 under the original contract he signed as the first-round pick in 2011. He gets $100 million in new money in the six-year extension.